1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to toilet aids designed to assist disabled, elderly and infirm patients to use a WC, and of the type which is fixed relatively to the WC pan and provides side support arms for a user. Such an aid helps a user to manoeuvre on to and off the toilet seat, thereby in many cases enabling him to do so unaided, and provides side support when seated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A toilet aid of the foregoing type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,778 with a mounting bracket, designed to be attached to a WC pan using the normal seat-attachment bolt holes in the pan, and side support legs which contact the floor alongside the WC pan. The legs are pivotally attached to the bracket some distance above the top surface plane of the WC pan and the arms are pivotally supported on the respective legs about upwardly inclined axes, so that they can be pivoted out of the way to allow side access to the toilet seat. With this prior construction a large portion of any vertical loading applied to the structure, for example by a heavy person leaning on one of the arms, is withstood by the WC pan. As a result of this, and also if offset or side loads are applied to the arms, damagingly high stresses can be applied to the WC pan and in extreme cases breakage of the latter can occur.